Europe: The amendment to the 1964 Scrap Metal Dealers Act will not see the inclusion of precious metals in the list if it reaches the statute book by the end of 2012.

In 2011, sponsoring MP Graham Jones had indicated that the parliament will consider the inclusion of precious metals and metal products in the list to safeguard illegal sales and purchase of scrap metal products, but it seems the parliament doesn’t have any specific plans to do so. Presently, the 1964 act lists copper, aluminum, iron, magnesium, lead, nickel, tin, zinc, bronze alloy, white metal, brass alloy and “any other alloy of any of the said metals”.

However, the same act, clause 9.4 states, “For the purposes of this Act, a substance being an alloy referred to in the last preceding subsection shall not be treated as being such an alloy if, of its weight, two per cent or more is attributable to gold or silver or any one or more of the following metals, that is to say, platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium.” Since the new draft of the existing law does not make any changes to this, it is assumed that no precious metals will be included in the amended act.